Side note: If all you need is rotation, using reaction wheels is a reasonable alternative - reaction wheels never change the speed of the ship, only rotate it, and do not use any fuel, only electricity.

If you use RCS to translate, the thrusters will fire in the same direction, adding up the linear momentum and cancelling out the angular momentum, resulting in no rotation, but changed speed. If you use RCS to rotate, the thrusters on the opposite ends of the ship will fire in different directions, cancelling out the linear momentum, and adding up the angular momentum, resulting in rotation but unchanged speed. So, in the case of RCS, what you generally want is for it to be far away from the CoM, but balanced around it (placed symmetrically around the CoM). The further away it is from the center of mass (CoM), the more angular momentum will be produced. If the center of thrust does not align perfectly with the center of mass, it will also apply angular momentum (which is the same as rotation or applying torque) to the ship. The amount is independent of where the thruster is placed. This spacecraft is not marked as 'debris' (right click on the probe module, rename vessel, change category back to 'Probe').The only difference between RCS thrusters and ordinary thrusters is the control scheme, the forces they apply work the same way:Īny time a thruster is fired, it applies linear momentum to the ship (which is the same as translation or changing the ship speed).Sometimes the control locks up due to glitches (especially if you have mods), try reload the save.Īnd finally, the real reason I wrote down this answer, because I did all above check and it still didn't work.Make sure your probe is not in 'hibernation' (right click on the probe module to check).Depends on difficulty setting, you might need a relay network if you are too far from Kerbin or if the Kerbal Space Centre is not directly facing you. You must have KerbNet access (check on the top left of the screen, next to mission time).You have an astronaut in a 'command module' of the ship (either a pilot, a scientist or an engineer, sitting inside a command module, not in a passenger module).You are not fast forwarding (press / key to stop any time-warp).You must have electricity (check resource panel on the top right of the screen).*The first part isn't exactly correct, since manned capsules don't actually produce a net amount of electricity, however they don't consume it either, and when you're out of electricity, they still function and now (as of version 0.21) consume electricity when their reaction wheels are used to change orientation. The only way to resurrect it would be to dock something else to it for power generation, but that assumes that a) you have a docking port on the dead probe and b) it's worth it to even do that. Unfortunately for you, your probe is basically dead. If you're using solar panels, you may also want to consider strapping some batteries to your probe as well, especially if they aren't going to be in direct sunlight all the time. Running most chemical engines also generates power (which is how you can get into orbit), but due to limited fuel, this is typically impractical. Unlike manned capsules, probes don't have any internal way of generating their own electricity.* You need to add solar panels (and remember to deploy them once in orbit), or Radioactive Thermal Generators to your probe.

Rcs kerbal space program controls